Laugh, sure. I’m sure none of you have inexperience people handling your own horses if you are actual horse people. But you’ll pile on here because it is “fun” for you individuals to do so online. I hope you are all happy with what happened to my horse because that seems to be funny to you all. Hahahaha! A horse got shocked!
Such a bizarre group of responses.
Sorry, as I said previously, I disagree.
Blanketing a statue? Yes you can be taught is 5 minute or less. Blanketing an old retiree horse? Yes, you can be taught in 5 minute or less. Blanketing an athletic-type horse? No, you can’t be taught in 5 minutes or less if you’re a non-horse person. Unless you’re lucky. They don’t know how to problem solve horse behavior.
No, what I posted in bold is what EVERYONE blanketing a horse should understand. Yeah, I get my options. I’ve self-reflected. What this thread has turned into is mean and unproductive. I’ve withheld details that I’ve privately told several other, more trusted people who can actually discuss things. The unproductive people have taken over the thread. Thanks @FjordBCRF.
OP,
I believe one point that people are trying really hard to make for you is that horses are prey animals and when frightened, their flight instinct takes over any and all training they have received. You cannot train instinct out of an animal, and I would be appalled if anyone even tried. This is the concept behind positive reinforcement vs. punishment methods, and why we are becoming less tolerant of methods using fear and punishment.
In your situation, your horse hit the electric wire accidentally. Period. No one intentionally drove it into the wire, and no amount of actual blanketing skills (expertise, credentials, licensure…) would have prevented the horse from touching the wire when it was so close to its face while eating and being blanketed simultaneously. A
What might have prevented the situation from happening is better overall barn management so that 1) horses do not eat near electric wires, or 2) horses who eat near electric wires are not blanketed while eating, or 3) the electric wires are turned off during feeding and blanketing time.
None of this has to do with the skill level of the blanketer. Once a horse is shocked, it’s going to react, whether it’s been trained to balance a circus ball on its nose or do Tempe changes wearing a tutu. A horse will be a horse, and the blanketer showed some skill in avoiding your horse.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful post.
I do believe training can influence immediate reactions. I’ve seen it this horse especially when as a youngster he’d act all out but as a teen he has been much more aware of the presence of people. I don’t think that’s unique. I think young horses become aware of their body parts and then learn to understand handlers and their body parts. A young horse can step on the handler, mature horses don’t. They understand the relationship.
I do believe that blanketing skills would not have driven him into the wire, since the BOs were blanketing without problem over the hotwire until this day. Until this day. Until this day.
Sure, barn management was key. There were several solutions with how they managed the hotwire in the paddock. Total miscommunication between the BOs and me and they didn’t manage the hot wire.
I’d say my horse showed more skilll in avoiding the blanketer that she showed. He has become adept, via intensive groundwork, to recognize where people are at and not run them over or get in their space. I honestly credit this non-accident to my horse and his years of groundwork training, not the newbie blanketer. She was lucky, IMO.
Last I checked, athleticism and good dispositions are not mutually exclusive traits. My horses are plenty athletic, but I have trained non-horse farm workers to blanket and un-blanket them many times in the past. It has never taken as much as 5 minutes. No horses, humans, or blankets were harmed in the process. Even the weanlings and yearlings stand quietly for the process, loose or haltered, eating or not, in the barn or the field, because they are sensible and well trained.
If one were to bump my hot wire while being handled, of course they would react. But that is a separate issue from the “one must be well trained to blanket a horse” argument.
Fixed it. Don’t confuse athletic with complete lack of manners. They are NOT the same thing at all.
You weren’t even there. So how could you possibly know if your horse did anything exceptional other than get shocked, and not run over the handler - which might have been simply been luck - the path of least resistance was around, not through. Or, maybe it was her exceptional agility that prevented her from being trampled by your spooking horse?
The idea that you’re still willing to come here and defend his actions and praise his training is bizarre.
He’s a horse. He spooked. It happens. Avoidable? Well, maybe in that situation it wouldn’t have happened without the hot wire. But a horse can scare itself by farting and spook. Mishaps happen and most of the time everyone is fine - and sometimes that’s just plain luck.
There it is again. You’re still talking about two separate things. Blanketing a horse is easy and quickly teachable to someone without experience. Blanketing a horse with behavioral issues? The blanketing is not the issue, it’s being able to handle that type of horse.
I’d say the HORSE is the problem there. And the owner, by extension.
Is one of those details whether or not the young woman managed to get the horse blanketed? Because I’m still unclear on that. It seems like such a simple question.
Fact of the matter is: horses are small brained reactive prey animals. Sh*t happens, no matter how “qualified” or otherwise the handlers are.
Do you want only highly trained 30 years of experience people who’ve completed 3 years of your guru of choice’s certification courses handling your horses? Pasture board at a private facility AINT gonna get it. 
Move, and be prepared to pay up.
???
What the what? Just because someone does something dumb around horses and nothing bad happens doesn’t mean it’s due to their superior “experience.”
Again, if it is so important to you that common, ordinary plebs do not mess with the training of your horse through unqualified blanketing, then look for a different boarding situation (although good luck finding one where people meet your qualification standards are helping out on Christmas weekend) or tell the barn owners that if they can’t swap blankets themselves, you’ll do it and leave the horse as is. Find a single light blanket that’s suitable for most weathers versus having a rotation of several to make it easier on yourself.
Also, take note when you are on FB horse pages, though, of what most barns pay their help.
Raise your hand if your have had a mature trained horse smash your toes.
Happens once and then the “relationship” between not taking care of the human by being aware of both parties’ feet and a ‘near death’ experience is explained in, oh, about 2 seconds flat.
Cows and horses that have never been taught that humans are fragile may take more than one ‘near death’ experience to understand. Horses that have special relationships with natural horsemanship (what I expect the op has with theirs) may never understand that because nothing is ever black and white and they have never been given responsibility for taking care of a human so they flip their shit wondering which of the umpteen stupid steps it was they messed up and never figure out it’s as simple as don’t step on the human’s feet
Exactly. Champagne tastes and a beer budget.
And the only one of my horses that has ever stepped on me is the one that has the best ground manners and handling…not the one that is like a bull in a china shop. Because accidents can and do happen regardless of training, regardless of any majikal Vulcan mind meld relationship between handler and horse. That’s what makes them accidents.
(In my case, it was a quick effort to fly spray while loose in the stall. She zigged and I zagged.)
No, no, no! Accidents do not happen with my Dobbin! He is a well trained aware athletic horse who is not young.
scoffs in snobbish
No, my horse was handled by inexperienced people. I made sure of that she was easy to handle because I expected CHILDREN to handle her. Ya know, tiny people with short attention span and terrible ideas? None of them have had a problem with her.
Same with the staffer I mentioned earlier. He did not have horse experience and used to try bribing my mare to be caught. When I saw that, I went “oh, don’t do that, she can have the treat after” because walking into the herd passing out snacks is a terrible decision.
This doesn’t make sense to me. Unless by Athletic you mean “poorly behaved?” In which case, that horse would be blanketed while tied.
“You deny that trained horses can’t override nature and will instead act like untrained horses? We don’t seem to train horses the same way. Or not their progress.”
I still do not understand exactly what behaviors this person was doing that you felt they were unskilled in blanketing.
“A young horse can step on the handler, mature horses don’t. They understand the relationship.”
Ummm.
“Age” did not stop my horse from running me over. He was 17, trained to third level. I owned him for 13 years. It had never happened before, so how do I explain that? Any horse can have a “moment.”
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